640 m³/min Centrifugal-Plus-Screw Air Station for a Heavy-Equipment Plant in Shanghai

The Shanghai plant of a major heavy-equipment manufacturer builds port machinery and automated terminal systems. Its new production base needed a compressed air station for two large sand-blasting workshops and a painting and assembly line, with a total demand of about 640 m³/min.

Sand blasting and painting consume large volumes of air, and demand changes considerably with the production schedule. The plant set clear goals for the new station: it had to be highly energy-efficient, deliver air on demand, and be fully digitalised so that energy use could be monitored and managed.

After on-site surveys and data modelling, the station was designed as a centrifugal-plus-screw combination:

• Base load: two SIND TurboPure MT series centrifugal compressors cover the steady base load at high efficiency.
• Variable load: four SIND screw compressors handle demand swings.
• Air treatment and heat recovery: post-treatment equipment conditions the air, and a SIND heat-recovery system reuses compression heat from the SIND compressors.
• Intelligent control: a station control system monitors and controls the compressors, dryers, header pressure sensors and flow meters. It matches supply to demand in real time.

All data can be viewed on mobile or PC dashboards. The system also generates reports automatically, issues fault warnings and supports lifecycle management of the equipment.

Testing by an independent national testing institute showed that all station indicators exceed the Grade-1 energy-efficiency standard.

After commissioning, the station delivered:

• 0.1056 kWh/m³ whole-station specific energy consumption.
• About 2.6 million kWh of electricity saved per year.
• About 1,480 t lower CO₂ emissions per year.
• 640 m³/min total supply, matched to demand by coordinated control.

Combining centrifugal base-load machines with screw trim units under one control layer is a proven way to reach high efficiency at large, variable-demand sites.